Chapter 618 - 441: We Will Definitely Make Air Conditioners, Refrigerators, and Washing Machines! LeTV Mobile Phone? That’s Orange Mobile Phone’s Little Brother

Chen Yansen had already intended to enter the fields of large and even small home appliances. He was interested in any labor-intensive industry.

Zhou Jieyun gave an awkward laugh and clinked glasses with Chen Yansen.

He knew perfectly well that if Chen Yansen really decided to make air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines, there was nothing he could do to stop him. They were all competitors anyway; one more or one less made no difference.

Having come to this realization, Zhou Jieyun quickly composed himself and began drinking heartily with Chen Yansen again.

After all, Chen Yansen’s eyes were still clear and his speech sharp—he clearly hadn’t had enough to drink.

As a native of Qilu and the host, it was his duty to drink with Chen Yansen until he was satisfied.

Half an hour later, Zhou Jieyun was slumped over the table, out cold.

Seeing this, his assistant gave Chen Yansen an embarrassed smile. "President Chen, my apologies. I’ll take President Zhou back now."

"Tell President Zhou that I’m fine with the cooperation," Chen Yansen said softly. "As for visiting Haier, let’s just forget it. The weekend is for resting."

’The weekend is for resting?’

Zhou Jieyun’s assistant couldn’t help but give a wry smile, and the way he looked at Chen Yansen now held a new, different meaning.

After the two left, Chen Yansen, accompanied by his security detail, also left the restaurant, got into a car, and headed for his hotel.

The next morning, the sky was just beginning to lighten.

Chen Yansen brought Song Yuncheng to Shi Laoren Beach. They felt the briny sea breeze on their faces as they watched the sun slowly rise from the horizon, eventually hanging high and steady in the sky.

Seeing Chen Yansen gazing into the distance, lost in thought, Song Yuncheng couldn’t help but lean gently against his side, a warmth spreading through her heart.

’Master, can Little Orange stay with you forever?’

Song Yuncheng asked silently in her heart.

...

...

"Over 200 shared bikes missing? Investigate!"

The moment Wang Zihao arrived at the Yanjing Branch, the head of the data department rushed in to report.

OFO determines if a bike is missing in two ways. First, based on its positioning system: if a bike remains stationary for an extended period without changing its location, and it isn’t in a designated parking area, the system may flag it as an anomaly.

Second, it relies on big data analysis, examining information like the bike’s usage frequency, parking duration, and the demand for bikes in that specific area.

If a bike goes unused for a long time and its status doesn’t match the normal usage and parking patterns for that area, the system will flag it as an anomaly and alert the operations team to conduct a secondary check.

But yesterday in Yanjing, a staggering 200 bikes were flagged as anomalies, compared to the usual dozen or so.

"Understood, President Wang. The operations team has already started searching based on the location data," the head of the data department replied with a nod.

Since every shared bike was equipped with a GPS module, the staff quickly pinpointed their locations to various riverways.

Dozens of bikes had been thrown into rivers in each district.

"Fuck! Which son of a bitch did this? This is so damn malicious!"

Wang Zihao cursed, then unhesitatingly called the police.

When the Inspection Institute received the call, they heard that the value of the property involved was over a hundred thousand yuan and that a subsidiary of Senlian Capital was the victim. They immediately treated the case with the utmost seriousness.

Wang Zihao considered for a moment and came to three conclusions: it was either Little Yellow Bike, DiDi Bike, or the ride-hailing drivers.

He knew exactly who OFO’s enemies were and whose interests they had threatened.

So, after some thought, he called in the head of operations and told him to find a few sharp dispatchers to go and ask around among the staff of Little Yellow Bike and DiDi Bike.

If only OFO’s loss rate had gone up, it would mean the ride-hailing drivers weren’t involved, leaving either Chang Wei or Cheng Wei as the main culprit.

The Inspection Institute was still reviewing surveillance footage from the relevant intersections and would notify him as soon as they had a result.

Before long, the head of operations reported back: Little Yellow Bike had lost over 100 bikes the previous night, and DiDi Bike was down by more than 200.

Of course, there was no guarantee this information was accurate; if someone was lying, he had no way of knowing.

Wang Zihao couldn’t make a judgment call, so for now, he just told his operations colleagues to focus on retrieving the bikes from the water.

It wasn’t until three in the afternoon that the Inspection Institute called back: a total of five individuals, wearing hats and masks the entire time, had used a truck with stolen plates.

Little Yellow Bike and DiDi Bike had also suffered losses.

’So it wasn’t Cheng Wei or Chang Wei?’

Wang Zihao was taken aback. This result was unexpected.

At the same time, Cheng Wei and Chang Wei were furiously cursing each other out over the phone.

"President Chang, there are cameras on every street and alley in Yanjing. You think you can just throw DiDi Bikes into the river? I’m disgusted by these kinds of competitive tactics," Cheng Wei sneered.

"You son of a bitch! I’m telling you, this has nothing to do with me! Don’t go around biting people like a mad dog. Little Yellow Bike also lost over a hundred bikes. Are you trying to pull a ’thief crying thief’ stunt?" Chang Wei shot back, not holding back in the slightest.

"Are you saying Wang Zihao did it?" Cheng Wei retorted.

"Look into it yourself! I’m not a damn inspector!" Chang Wei couldn’t be bothered to talk to him anymore and hung up.

On the other end, Cheng Wei was still muttering curses. He was just about to call Wang Zihao when a call came in from the Inspection Institute.

After hearing the inspector’s description, Cheng Wei was lost in thought. ’If it wasn’t Chang Wei, and it wasn’t Wang Zihao, then who could it be?’

With all three bike-sharing companies filing a joint police report, the Inspection Institute had no choice but to assign more manpower. They began tracking the five suspects’ escape route from Yanjing, a massive undertaking that involved combing through endless surveillance footage. It was clear there wouldn’t be a quick result.

Chang Wei had originally planned to find some guys, take a truck out at night, and dump a few hundred DiDi and OFO bikes into the river to blow off some steam.

But after getting the call from the Inspection Institute, he hastily called off the plan.

The next day, a truck strongly resembling the one used in the crime appeared in Hebei.

Local inspectors, assisting with the investigation, went to the door to ask some questions, but the suspect immediately bolted.

Running?

’That’s them, all right!’

A grin spread across the inspector’s face. He pulled out his walkie-talkie, and his colleagues downstairs caught the man red-handed.

It didn’t take much effort to round up all five of them.

The story was simple. All five were from Hebei and had previously been driving illegal taxis in Yanjing.

Ever since the number of shared bikes on the streets had exploded, their business had become increasingly bleak.

In reality, Fast Taxi and DiDi Dache had taken away far more of their business than the bike-sharing companies ever did.

But the official taxi companies were large and powerful, mostly state-owned enterprises they couldn’t afford to cross. So, they directed their anger at the bike-sharing companies, launching an indiscriminate attack.

They thought their plan was flawless, but unfortunately for them, the number of surveillance cameras in 2013 was directly proportional to the rate of economic growth, especially in the Yanjing Region.

In total, over five hundred shared bikes were destroyed. This constituted intentional destruction of public and private property of a significant value. Now they wouldn’t have to worry about driving illegal taxis anymore; with a minimum three-year sentence, you could say they’d landed themselves a stable job.

And after three years, they might even pick up a new skill or two.

However, the actions of these five men had unintentionally frayed the nerves of the three bike-sharing companies. Before the Inspection Institute even released an official report, OFO, DiDi Bike, and Little Yellow Bike had already launched another subsidy war.

This time, the battleground expanded from Yanjing to the entire North China Region!

Regardless of whether they were new or old users, everyone got one free-ride coupon per day, plus cash-back rewards for riding.

The Gray Studios lurking in the shadows were ecstatic. The last time around, many of them had bought the "Little Golden Bull" cheating software but hadn’t even made their money back before DiDi Bike and Little Yellow Bike canceled their promotions.

This time, they were determined to fleece them for all they were worth!

But to their fury, the cash-back reward event was canceled the very next day.

They were so incensed that they decided to pose as users on Weibo and relentlessly attack Chang Wei and Cheng Wei.

"Who runs a promotion for only one day? If you can’t afford it, then get lost! Just go bankrupt and shut down already!"

"Trash company! Your bikes are busted and a pain to ride, and there are steel needles on the seats! Who knows if they’re infected with some virus!"

Steel needles?

That last comment terrified netizens.

While people didn’t stop using shared bikes because of it, they did become more cautious, making sure to check the seat before every ride.

"A couple of morons!"

Wang Zihao muttered under his breath when he heard the news.

OFO, however, paid no attention to the drama and continued to distribute random cash rewards to its users, ranging from fifty to eighty cents. The amounts were small, but it gave users a reason to choose OFO.

By this point, OFO’s total deployment nationwide had reached 900,000 bikes. In terms of order volume, it had captured sixty percent of the market share.

DiDi Bike held thirty percent.

Little Yellow Bike had only ten percent.

Both OFO and DiDi Bike had introduced deposit-free options, but Little Yellow Bike still insisted on its "refund-on-demand" and "use top-up as deposit" models, which naturally made users wary.

Furthermore, due to cost considerations, the 400,000 bicycles that Little Yellow Bike had deployed were all low-cost models.

In less than half a year, the tires, chains, handlebars, and frames of these bikes all showed varying degrees of damage.

A repairman for Little Yellow Bike put it bluntly: "We can’t keep up! There’s no way to fix them all!"

Meanwhile, car-sharing brands began popping up like mushrooms after a rain, with seven or eight new companies appearing overnight.

From north to south and east to west, numerous car rental companies were buying just fifty or sixty cars, hastily developing an app, and launching their product.

Their goal was twofold: to scam money from venture capitalists and to scam deposits from users.

But the VCs basically took one look and started throwing money at them left and right.

It was the height of the sharing economy craze, and the VC managers were even more hot-headed than the entrepreneurs themselves.

Meanwhile.

The day after Chen Yansen returned to Xucheng, he received a technical document from Jia Yaoting for the LeTV Phone Youth Edition and the LeTV Phone Pro, abbreviated as Le 1 and Le Pro.

The former was priced at 999 yuan. It was a high-value, entry-level phone targeting young users, with deep integration of ecosystem services like LeTV Video and Music.

A purchase came with a three-month LeTV VIP membership, allowing free access to shows like *The Legend of Zhen Huan* and other video content.

The latter was priced at 1999 yuan, positioned to compete with the Xiaomi 2S and Meizu MX2. It came with a complimentary LeTV Bluetooth headset and a six-month LeTV VIP membership.

The documents included information such as schematics and PCB designs, a Bill of Materials (BOM), hardware interface definition documents, antenna design specifications, and assembly and exploded-view diagrams.

’Great, another shit-stirrer.’

Chen Yansen considered his assessment of Jia Yaoting to be spot-on.

Still, he was a major client for the Orange Phone Factory and was willing to use the Aurora Future System, so President Chen was naturally happy to help.

He then forwarded all the documents to Cao Dahua to have him arrange the production line calibration and schedule manufacturing.

Even though the phone hadn’t entered mass production, Jia Yaoting was already eagerly announcing LeTV’s smartphone plans to the public.

It would use the same production equipment and supply chain as Orange Mobile Phone, incorporating their fast-charging, battery management, and camera algorithm technologies.

Jia Yaoting held a product-less launch event in Yanjing, where, armed with only a PowerPoint presentation, he whipped LeTV fans across the country into a frenzy.

"Suffocating for the dream!"

But in the eyes of his competitors, the LeTV phone was nothing more than a rebadged model from Orange Technology, no different from the phones made for 360 or NetEase.

They couldn’t help but curse in frustration, "Another damn shit-stirrer!"